Thursday, March 17, 2011

County Workers Must Sacrifice

Acknowledging she used a lot of one-time funding sources to balance her first budget, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle says that a spending overhaul in the coming years will require sacrifice from the roughly 23,000 employees on the county’s payroll.

While refinancing debt, drawing on tax-increment-funding dollars, even handing 10 unpaid days off to most county employees helped plug a $487 million hole in this year’s $3.1 billion county spending plan, Preckwinkle said long-term solutions will likely mean county employees will have to pick up a larger share of health-care costs and pay more for pension benefits.

“We pay about 4 percent of our health-care costs. I think that over the long term, that’s just not sustainable. We have to step up as employees and pay a greater proportion of our health care,” Preckwinkle told reporters Wednesday...

Voters swept Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez out of office by a stunning margin Tuesday, capping a dramatic collapse for a politician who was given increased authority by voters four years ago to clean up much-maligned county government but was ushered out in the largest recall of a local politician in U.S. history.

The spectacular fall from power comes after two years of missteps, ranging from granting top staffers big pay hikes to construction of a publicly funded stadium for the Florida Marlins to implementation of a property-tax rate increase that outraged an electorate struggling through an ugly recession.

Alvarez tried to fend off ouster by twice filing suit to block a recall vote. After the lawsuits went nowhere, he defended his record in speeches, radio and television appearances and paid advertisements, arguing that he made the tough calls to preserve vital services for residents.

But voters responded by handing the mayor a humiliating defeat: Nearly nine of every 10 voted to remove Alvarez from office.

Along with the mayor, the most powerful commissioner was also recalled by a 90-10% margin in heavily democratic Miami-Dade. That'd be like Ed Burke getting trounced in his own backyard. Florida voters finally got fed up. So when will Chicago voters wake up?

36 Comments:

Anonymous said...

4:11 A.M. you are wrongChicago has easily gained 200,000 illegals since then. Just yesterday I saw a minivan full of illegals with Arizona plates. Therefore, the population in Chicago has not gone down.

3/16/2011 12:24:00 PM

Any talk of cutbacks and us having to pay more comes back to this. They are an unsustainable drain on out city, county and state. This 'sanctuary city' label will bury us and some politicians don't care. The last names will tip you off most of the time, but do your homework. Vote accordingly.

You left out an important point in the Miami story. The government workers received a raise recently and the voters were pissed about it. So before we go and jump on the bandwagon look at the big picture. Quinns an idiot but he's pro union so take the good with the bad.

The question is how did Carlos Alvarez get elected in the first place? Because the people of Miami-Dade thought he was the best candidate? Was he the most articulate? Charismatic? He must have said the right things during his campaign to win the election.

And thats all you have to do to get the people to 'play ball.' Just have common sense and appeal to the sheep and they will vote for you.

When Rahm lays the smackdown on us, think about the terds who voted for him. They are the problem.

I've been pleasantly surprised with Toni preclwonkle. I was expecting a tax and spend Democrat, not a fiscal conservative. Although truth be told I don't think She had any choice. Anymore tax increases and you would of had angry mobs with torches ready to storm the county building.

City, county and state should all be shrinking they're payrolls And employees by double digit percentage points.

What ever happened to pay the bills that need to be paid then do the extras? People in this contry think that they are owed everything. I am sure that if you first pay the people that WORK, Then the companies that supply and then the repairs that need to be done. The budget would balance itself. Why Should the people that get up every day and go to work suffer? Cut all the state supported,county supported and city supported projects.Make the people that get these programs work for them. One day this will all blow up and the what are we going to do?

If everyone paid their fare share we would not need budget cuts.I have nothing agaist people coming to this city or state. They should be tax paying citizens. (they should be legal) Study, pass the test and become a citizen. If we keep letting illegals into this State, County, City we are going to go broke. They should pay for everything just like we do.We need to enforce the laws that are already set.

Get real Preckwinkle, balance the budget on the backs of your six figure office staff! Charge those illegals and out of town residents to use the hospital. I am sick and tired of paying to float everyone. Nobody helps me!

County workers (patronage army) must suffer (?) because of the malfeasance of the Strogers. How many of Tood Stoogers friends and family benefitted from being employed under his command? They tapped not only a County (6 figure) paychecks but every federal agency that funded the entitlement programs, FEMA, HUD, Homeland Security, they came in contact with. If the Fed did their investigation the crook would be in the MCC now. That Re-Form is gonna take awhile. Watch your tax bill for an increase come the 2nd installment.

She is full of shit! She fired some good people with great experience and knowledge of County Gov.

Its the same game, but different ball players. She is replacing all the terminated staff with those that have to leave the city, now that Daley is leaving. John Daley has to make room for his brothers cronies.

How about closing the doors to everyone who drops into CC hospital without a legal ID....or those who come from neighboring counties for their "free care"....People in will, dupage, winnebago, lake, kane, grundy, etc., all come here fore their free care.....start billing their counties for the free treatment provided to their citizens. Start billing the mexican counsulate for all the free illegal care. Cook county taxpayers shouldn't have to foot the bill for all of these non-payers. amf.

Private security could do the jobs the deputy sherrifs do at the courthouses...

"All rise for the honorable..." is the hardest part.

So who would do the 500 plus arrests the deputies make at the criminal courts building every year? 010 ? We are short enough as it is we dont need to be picking up counties arrests. They do well on their own.